Gia - 137 - Back to airs above the ground, er, cantering

I started my ride on Gia much like all the others recently.  I did have to do a lot of circles in the corners, and even on the long sides, at the trot today, before I got the balanced, straight lines I was looking for.

Today's big challenge was the canter.

It had been a while since I asked Gia to canter.  We've been spending a lot of time honing our walk and trot skills, along with the jumping and work off the property, so the canter kind of got pushed to the back burner.

It showed today.

I took several videos of the canter, from beginning to end.  As you will see in the videos, it started out pretty rough, but it definitely improved too.

Her first few canter steps contained a lot of bucking.  I'm not exactly sure why.  She never bucked like that when I had asked her to canter in the past.  Maybe she was feeling full of herself, or maybe she was surprised, since we hadn't done it in a while.  Each time she bucked, I fussed at her and tried to send her forward.  As soon as she gave me something half way decent, I praised her.  I aimed for three moments of praise before I stopped to give her a break and change direction.  Amazingly, the bucks didn't feel as bad as they look. ☺

She had a really hard time with her canter to the left today.  In the last one, you can see that it takes several tries before she gives me the correct lead.  Each time she goes for the incorrect lead, I bring her back, straighten her body with a little bit of pushing her shoulder to the right and her haunches to the left, and then try again.  She is actually really responsive to the straightening aids!  She just keeps defaulting to crooked as soon as I ask for the canter.  I was initially planning to canter three times in each direction, but on the last one to the left (which would have been her second to last one overall), it took her so long to get it, that once she did, I decided to end on that.

We will definitely be working on this more in future rides!

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